Fate of the Damned
by Exhale Vanilla Lace
Summary: He can’t turn back, he never could. And when it’s all said and done, Sasuke ended up here, in a cell, waiting for his executioner. Thus is the fate of the damned... Sorta a sequel to ‘Flowers for the Dead’


A/N: Yeah, so this is sorta like a continuation of Flowers for the Dead, even though I'm not sure I wanted to give that one an ending. I'm just really kinda bored right now and this qualifies as a temporary break from Fuck, I Think My TV's Broken, since I'm feeling angsty and I don't want it to effect the story. It's like 2:15am, so I'm gonna send this to my beta oceanbornspirit. And I'm happy to have her! She'll be introduced better in Fuck, I Think My TV's Broken, as it's pretty popular and stuffs, but yeah. I'm just gonna get her overall opinion and make sure the spelling doesn't burn your eyes out! Love to ya, my peoples!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. … Proof? You want proof? Well most of the guys are still walking around with shirts. That's pretty concrete if you ask me. Haha.

Fate of the Damned

_I suppose I always knew she was right. _

_I suppose I didn't quite have to damn myself to the fate of the dead like she and my brother before me. _

_I suppose there are other things I could have done. _

_I suppose I'll never know…._

It was cold.

So very cold.

The man could feel the chill creeping up his spine, though he neither acknowledge it nor cared.

And it was bright.

So very bright.

The blinding sunlight of winter's noon reflected painfully through his mockingly barred window. Having a window cell was not a rare privilege, he knew, he just somehow hadn't seen it in his future.

_Then again, there are many things I hadn't seen…._

He lifted a very pale hand, far far too pale and swept black bangs away from his eyes.

He'd always had what one would call a 'frozen expression' in his youth, but now it seemed to be more than that: his coal colored eyes, that he'd thought he'd once never have again, had adopted a haze, a glimmer that had left him blind till the spell had ended.

It was his punishment, he supposed, for what he had done, for what he had given up, for what he had lost because of his foolishness.

It seemed remarkable to him that he'd reached this point; waiting here, in his cell, to be picked up in minute's time. Don't get him wrong, he didn't care. He had never really cared, so why start now?

Perhaps he wouldn't be here if the idiot had just stayed Hokage… but, wait, that was his fault, too, wasn't it…

_I can't go back… I never could…._

His eye convulsed, gaining a reddening hue as it so often did. He couldn't have controlled it, even if he had wanted to.

His lips curved into a cruel smirk. What would these damned eyes show him this time, hmm? His dying clan, his brother's face, perhaps that blonde's death. Who knows? These eyes had a torture plan all of their own.

Pain—a feeling he didn't know he still had—shot through his temples. The cell before him dissolved; replaced by darker scenes—shadows that he recognized yet were just beyond memories reach. They were oddly blurry, these shadows. How strange; the sharingan had never gone faulty on him before.

And for a moment, he actually laughed.

Irony, it was irony.

_I sold my soul to the devil, why had I ever expected to have a fair contract?_

A loud creaking sound drew him from his confusing visions. His pupil dilated black and the crimson in his eye contracted, leaving only coal in its wake.

He looked up, and he was not surprised to find emerald eyes staring back at him.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" She said coldly.

Sasuke knew it was a stupid question, that it was done more out of routine than anything else. For this woman knew him as he did her, and could not have mistaken him if she was blind.

Figures that they'd send her to get me…

"Hai." He said.

His voice rolled strong in his throat gained from maturity, and rasped from neglect.

"Then Come." So very cold.

He knew she wouldn't be swayed by words, or show remorse for his death. Not that he'd hoped.

For he had killed that man… and for that he would not be forgiven.

After bowing his head for a moment, he wondered if he should even waste his breath to chuckle bitterly.

In the end, he only stood, he stood and he followed her. Not a second glace spared to his room, nor a second thought for the last times he was experiencing. The last time he would walk these halls, the last time he would see this room.

No, that wasn't important.

He closed his eyes and let himself smile.

_How did it come to this…?_

How far the mighty had fallen.

These chakra cuffs? They were a joke, child's play for the one who had killed Orochimaru, simple chains to the man who had murdered his best friend.

Now that he thought about it, he'd probably never see Naruto again either.

That disturbed him slightly. Naruto had promised to beat his face in when they met in the nether world. Sasuke didn't really believe in a higher power—for no one was this cruel—yet, he had never known Naruto to break a promise and he found himself questioning it.

In his days as genin he had cursed the gods for what they'd done to him.

He smiled maniacally at the thought.

God had been paying him back for all of his thoughts, his hate.

Itachi had been paid back too, for where was the fucker now?

His smile grew.

Sasuke sharply drew a breath sharply between his teeth as his eyes convulsed violently once more. Pain shot down his spine in a familiar agony.

And Sakura… Sakura watched.

She'd seen this before, she knew of his pain, and proceeded to not to give a damn.

The man kneeling before her was not her old, beloved Sasuke-kun. He was Uchiha Sasuke, the convict, the Missing Nin, the man that killed Naruto. And for that he deserved to suffer.

_God has a sick sense of humor, I'll tell him so, should I be judged…_

Sasuke saw red… how very fitting.

And through the red, he saw the night… the night where it all began. And in the night, he saw a massacre. Blood spilled through trust's betrayal. And in the massacre, he heard a scream. A voice, his voice, and the cruel response it was given.

And everything went black. And in the black he saw a fight, a fight between two powerful beings; one of darkness and one of light. And in that fight he saw a moment, a moment where the darkness overcame the light. And in that moment he saw his flaw, he saw where it all went wrong.

And everything was blue. Upon it, he saw the death of his comrade and friend. And in the death for the first time ever, he felt remorse. How could he have been so daft? And in remorse he felt regret. Regret? Yes.

Slowly, the blue faded to white. In its place, a pair of eyes, eyes of the women whose name was secret. And in her eyes he saw her pain. Pain that struck a cord within him, and in her pain he heard the echo of those words, "I am she who has failed to stop the sin."

He gasped, a shiver wracking his body as the visions ceased. Sweat beaded on his face and he was struck with a hard weariness.

"Are you quite finished?"

Sakura's words were cold.

So very cold.

But he nodded and stood shakily as she turned and continued to lead the way.

The room he entered was barren and white, with a simple chair that looked none too comfortable, in its center. Sasuke let a small smile break his emotionless mask.

So this was it. This was to be his fate.

_Sakura… to think it's come to this… can you ever forgive me for the life I've taken?_

"Uchiha Sasuke."

_No… I suppose you can not…_

He sat, knowing it was meant to be so, as his former teammate proceeded with regulation.

"You here charged with leaving this village to join the enemy, murdering countless leaf-nins, breaking into the Hokage tower and stealing valuable documents, and most importantly the murdering of our beloved Hokage-sama, Uzumaki Naruto."

A steel had entered her voice, and Sasuke could not help but be slightly proud, impressed, by how far the girl had come.

"How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

He needn't have said it, his sentence would remain, though the plea was in his voice his words, his eyes, the very way he carried himself.

_It is me now, what I've become… and oh, how I __hate__ it…_

"Very well, Uchiha Sasuke you know your sentence, I presume?"

He stared at her with something dull in his gaze. She walked to him, her hands glowing green with an expert's ease.

He was proud indeed.

"Any last words."

He nodded again and smiled rather bitterly at her.

"Sakura… arigato." She seemed shocked for a moment, both of them experiencing the same flashback. "I'll say hello to him shall I?" He muttered. "Kakashi as well, if I get the chance."

My, what a reunion that would be…

"Trust me you won't." Sakura growled, how dare he speak this way?

"Ah, probably not." He admitted.

Her eyes narrowed.

"I won't cry for you," She informed.

"Good… Keep your tears for Naruto."

If she was surprised, she hid it well, but something about her softened.

"Sakura… when's the baby?"

"…May."

"What will you call her?"

He was curious, though it didn't matter, he would never meet the child.

"Her?" She questioned.

"The dobe would give you a girl," He chuckled quietly. "I just know."

"I was thinking Akiko…," she admitted though she did not know why she was telling him this. Why she was having such a casual conversation with this murderer...

"Akiko…" he repeated closing his eyes and feeling the name on his lips. "Iris." He acknowledged.

_She will name her daughter light and hope… _

"Goodbye, Sasuke." Sakura's hovering hands pulsated over his chest.

Goodbye, is it? Yes, this time…

His vision blurred and everything became a dark. And in the darkness, he saw grey. Grey of a day that promised rain over the graveyard. Graveyard? Yes. And in the graveyard, he saw himself a banquet of lilies in his arms. Sister by sister, he dropped the each one, in a subtle rhythm.

And then he saw two candles, 'drop,' and all the lilies' cousins, family, and friends fell from his arms. And by the candle, she stood, that woman from his past. She looked the same as before, yet sadder, and she seemed to stare right at him. The same coal hair and pale skin. The same apparition that took one breath after another even after her heart had long stopped beating.

To her lips, she held a flower.

_Anemone. _

_Forsaken love. _

"_Damn the Uchiha pride."_

She dropped it… and a candle went out.

Sasuke's body shook.

To her lips, she then held a second flower.

_Cyclamen. _

_Goodbye. _

"_I'm sorry."_

She dropped the flower and the last candle went out….

Sasuke saw light, blinding and bright. But he felt no pain, he knew no sound. He was weightless, standing… but where? There was something in this light. A silhouette he could not distinguish. But as the light dimmed what he saw was something new. It was different and clearer then it should have been.

And Sasuke saw standing there, his friend.

Sasuke saw Naruto.

He was bearing a fox-ish smile as though he'd gotten away with something. But this… this wasn't possible. How Sasuke hated his eyes. And yet…

"Guess who put in a good word for ya?" Naruto said, pride in his words.

_God has a sick sense of humor… I guess would too if I had this much power…_

Sasuke almost spoke but he didn't have the time. A moment gone; and Naruto went with it. He felt his heart larch and the Sasuke Uchiha, almost cried. Damn the Uchiha pride, how could his eyes be so cruel? To show him that lie and then rip it away. Surely these eyes were the work of demons. And not for the first time Sasuke felt his sanity slipping.

His jaw cracked to the side with the for of the hit and Sasuke saw this time Naruto Uzumaki, that same warm smile and-if he went crossed eyes- his best friends fist.

"I promised I kick your ass. About time I came through."

And Sasuke, for once, wasted his breath on a laugh.

_We are not gods, we never were. And, when we come close to bearing a fraction of that power, we lose all reason and thought. We are beyond remorse, beyond peace. _

_I suppose I always knew she was right. _

_I suppose I didn't quite have to damn myself to fate of the dead, like she and my brother before me._

_I suppose there are other things I could have done._

_I suppose I'll never know_…

A/N: Ha, that's about as long as it's other one. You know I wrote another one before this, sort of as a last diary entry of Sasuke's, I like the ending, but this fic satisfies my angst more. I sorta just sat down and felt like killing off Sasuke, but in a good way. Now this wouldn't work for my other fic, I must have a living Sasuke. Haha. You know usually I'm not too fond of the NaruSaku paring since it disrupts my hardcore fanism to NaruHina, but it sorta just worked for this fic. Hope I didn't piss anyone off. But, well, review and stuffs, will ya? I seriously love reviews, they make me happy. You know what else makes me happy? Sleep! God I'm tired. I have every intention of crashing for the next 10 hours or something. Waking up and writing more of Chapie 9 in 'Fuck I Think My TV's Broken.' Good night, ya'll! And of course, PLEASE REVIEW!


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